Owners ‘must make homes energy efficient before sale’

Homeowners could be given cheap loans to improve their propertiesGETTY IMAGES

The owners of more than a million poorly insulated homes may be forced to upgrade them before they can be sold to help to meet the government’s climate change targets.

The committee on climate change, which advises the government on the targets, is calling today for urgent action to reduce the amount of energy wasted in homes. It says in a report that government policies set out last year in the clean growth strategy are inadequate to meet the UK’s legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

It wants the government to try to give homeowners incentives to invest in better insulation, but to make it compulsory if take-up is low. The incentives could include low-interest-rate loans or discounts on stamp duty if a…